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064 The Right Moment
The background is white. ; Panel 1 Zane turns away from Iris towards the back room, smiling with forced cheer, sweating heavily and trembling. He says "*Okay I'm gonna clean up in the other room.*" A thought bubble covers up part of the speech bubble, and reads "The fear. I knew about the fear." He has his shoulders hunched up and is holding his diary tightly to his chest. Iris looks on as she holds the diving helmet under her arm. She has one hand on her hip and a concerned, suspicious expression on her face as she watches Zane go. Above her head, Mercy sees a fly flying in a curved pattern indicated by a trail of dotted lines. Short, thin lines from Mercy's head show that she's spotted the fly. The background is a cool blue, and the multi-paneled window can be seen behind Iris. ; Panel 2. This is a large, rectangular area of the strip without a border, unlike the other ones, giving it the impression that it's floating on a lower level than the other panels. It's white, and the three red lines extend from behind the first panel and run horizontally to nearly the edge of the strip. Superimposed on the red lines is Zane, his door and his bed. Zane is leaning against the closed door to his room with his arms akimbo, holding the dream diary, and he's sweating, trembling and his eyes are terrified. His thoughts are expressed in one large speech bubble, broken up into different sentences. He thinks "I *knew* fear jogged memory. I was trying to *make myself afraid*. But how far did I go? Did I -- when *Maris* -- Did *I* get Maris alone in the woods, and --" In larger text, "*No. That's just not possible.*" Then, in smaller text, "He'd have defended himself." In normal text, his thoughts continue "How *could* I have? Unless he trusted me. And I waited for the *right moment*." ; Panel 3. Zane walks further into his room, still trembling, sweating and gritting his teeth. He holds the book out in front of him as he thinks "I have to tell *Angstrom*. He has to learn about the second journal. This is *his* fault in a way. He thought he was so scientific. But he's not immune. *No one is.*" The coloring is done in mottled greens and browns. ; Panel 4. Zane rips the final bloodstained page out of the book, thinking "But no one can know about... *this*. Until I make *sure* it's not true. It's *not*. Because it's *not true.*" ; Panel 5. Zane, his eyes blank and terrified and his expression anxious, grits his teeth, grasping the scrunched-up page in one fist. He trembles as he thinks "I'll just hide these pages... in the *desk*? No. Under the bed? Maybe loose floorboards. *No*. What if the first place I look has *more pages* because I forgot hiding them?" ; Panel 6. Zane drops his book and looks as if he's been frozen. His eyes are blank and terrified, and although he's still sweating he's not trembling. He thinks, in small text, "How many times have I done this." The coloring of both Zane and the background becomes less saturated with color, giving it a brownish, grayish tinge.